This Collection of his Writings and Photographs is a Memorial to the Life and Work of Murdoch MacKenzie

KIRKSPIRE article AUGUST 2007

ST ANDREW’S CHURCH

SYMBOLS AS SIGNS OF THE SPIRIT

Murdoch MacKenzie

Living as we do on earth we need symbols. Used carefully and well they can enable us to see beyond the horizon to things eternal. Used carelessly or without understanding they can cause a great deal of confusion. At the beginning and end of our worship we carry the Bible in and out. This is a symbol that we recognise the Word of God as our supreme authority. In 1976 we received the gift of a Lectern edition of the New English Bible. It was first used in Public Worship on Bible Sunday and placed on the Communion Table when the following prayer was offered.

‘O God our Heavenly Father who has caused all Holy Scriptures to be written for our learningand who has given us this beautiful church in which to hear your Word

We place this Bible before you now on this table as a symbol of the fact that your Word and Sacraments are at the centre of our lives.

We rededicate ourselves to hear Your Word and to obey it.We accept the gift of this Bible as a sacred trust and pray that it may always be faithfully and reverently used and dedicated to Your Service.

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.’

We have other symbols, two of which appear on the letterhead of the Kirk’s notepaper. They are the Burning Bush, symbol of the Church of Scotland, and the Burning Lotus, symbol of the Church of South India. The Burning Bush was seen by Moses at the edge of the wilderness on Mount Horeb, the mountain of God. God called to him out of the bush and gave Moses various instructions. It was from the midst of the bush that God spoke his Name to Moses –YWYH ‘I am who I am’. It is this name which is written in Hebrew above the outside portico at the front of the Kirk. But in our symbol there is more than the Burning Bush. There are the Latin words ‘Nec Tamen Consumebatur’. These refer to the bush and are simply the translation of Exodus 3:2 ‘yet it was not consumed’. This was a firewhich purified but did not destroy. It was the fire of God, the fire of the Holy Spirit. Thus, in our symbol, there is also the dove hovering in downward flight, signifying the presence of the Holy Spirit. Finally there is the diagonal cross of St Andrew, our patron saint. Therefore this symbol reminds us that our roots stretch back into the history of Israel and that the God of Moses and of Andrew is also our God.

Our CSI symbol also has much to teach us. It too has a cross at the centre which, though surrounded by flames, is not consumed. These flames again symbolise the power of the Holy Spirit. They are not in the form of a bush but of a lotus. This reminds us that our roots are deep in the water of India and that God is concerned that our whole land from the Himalayas to Cape Comorin and from Mumbai to Kolkata should be purified in the flames of God’s love. Surrounding the cross and the flames there is a circle signifying unity, strength and perfection. In that circle there are the words of our Lord Himself from His great high priestly prayer – ‘That they may all be one’. In a world of so many divisions we are mandated by Christ Himself to be so on fire with the Holy Spirit that we may cross all frontiers and barriers in love and in peace until we reach that unity for which Christ prayed and gave his life. Indeed the Holy Spirit is always associated with unity and peace, love and concord. May our unity and peace be such that the world may believe the Gospel.